Fraudulent sale of property can now be cancelled by registration authority

Haryana amends the registration manual to empower authorities

In a decision aimed at protecting the rights of property owners, the Haryana government has amended the registration manual to ensure that persons with valid titles would not have to seek legal recourse to get deeds of the fraudulent sale cancelled. The property owners can continue to have the liberty to enjoy their property.

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Financial commissioner, revenue (FCR), Sanjeev Kaushal said a notification has been issued by the state government to amend the Haryana Registration Manual by insertion of paragraph 159-A.

The FCR said the amendment will empower registration officers to accept and register cancellation of sale deeds registered fraudulently by a person who is not entitled to transfer of such property.

“If a person has a right in the property and someone else transfers it without his consent, the right in that property will continue to subsist in genuine owner and the transfer will have no effect on such title,’’ he said.

Section 23-A of the Registration Act, 1908, empowers the registration officer to re-register a document by ignoring the earlier registration. The amendment in the manual of rules done by the state government draws its power from Section 23-A.

According to the amendment, if a document is registered at the instance of a person not duly empowered to present the same, any person claiming under the document, may, within four months from the date of knowledge that such document is invalid, present such document in such event.

The registering officer, after following the same procedure contemplated under the Registration Act, 1908, can re-register the document, that is, cancellation deed, as if it has not been registered previously.

If a document relating to transfer by way of sale, gift, mortgage, exchange, lease or otherwise, is registered for ‘Shamlat Deh’ land vested or deemed to have vested in the Panchayat Deh under the Punjab Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961, or in municipalities, including municipal corporations, under the Haryana Municipal Act, 1973, and the Haryana Municipal Corporation Act, 1994, the block development panchayat officer, secretary, executive officer or commissioner, municipal corporation or district municipal commissioner, will get the cancellation deed registered after seeking approval of the deputy commissioner or other superior authority.

This parameter will be applicable for ‘Shamlat Deh’ lands illegally partitioned and alienated in the past without getting the title adjudicated under the relevant statute by the competent authority or court, as applicable.

In addition, there can be unimaginable number of circumstances when the executant himself, of his own volition, comes before the registering officer and desires to cancel the earlier document. In such cases, the registering officer could re-register (cancel the document, totally ignoring the earlier registration) under Section 23A of the Registration Act, 1908.

The amendment also mentions that as per Schedule 1A, Article 17, as applicable to Haryana, of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899, and the Indian Stamp (Haryana Amendment) Act, 2018, the cancellation deed, with a stamp fee of Rs 500, is recognised as a legal document in law and a transaction for transfer of immovable property is no exception.